Isabelle of Chartres
Isabelle of Blois or Elizabeth of Blois (died 1248 or 1249) was the
Family
Isabelle (Elizabeth) was born probably before 1180.
Isabelle was married twice. In 1190, she was married to Sulpice III of Amboise. They had six children: Hugh, Matilda, John, William, Alice and Dionysia.[5] Sometime before 1209, Sulpice and Isabelle jointly founded the Cistercian priory of Moncé.[5] When Sulpice died, sometime between 1214 and 1218, Hugh inherited Amboise. He in turn was succeeded by Matilda around 1237. The fates of the four younger children of Isabelle and Sulpice are unknown.[6] Isabelle made several gifts to Moncé for the benefit of Sulpice's soul, including endowing a priest there to say mass daily.[7][8] In 1218, she married John II, lord of Montmirail and Oisy.[9] No children of her second marriage are known.[5][10]
Countess
When Isabelle's nephew, Count
In 1222, Isabelle and John founded the Cistercian nunnery of Lieu-Notre-Dame on her property in the castellany of Romorantin.[15] This foundation lay on the edge of the marshy wilderness known as the Sologne and the nuns were given 36 arpents to bring under cultivation. In 1232, Isabelle's daughter Matilda and her husband, Richard II of Beamont, granted the nuns a further 100 arpents rent free if they brought it under cultivation.[16]
In 1226, with the help of the
In 1226, William of Perche died, leaving Isabelle his share of the income from the mills of Chartres for "support of the poor".
In 1241, Isabelle's niece, Countess Mary of Blois, died, leaving her entire estate, including the county of Blois, to her husband, Count Hugh, and Isabelle. Hugh maintained control.[26] In 1247, Isabelle drew up her will, confirming all her previous gifts to Lieu.[27] She also endowed a chapel there for masses to be said daily for her, her family and her cousin, Queen Blanche.[7] In 1248, she bought back property at Saugirard, which her brother had given to the abbey of Barzelle before 1205, in order to bestow it on the nuns of Lieu.[28]
Isabelle died in 1248 or 1249.[15] She was succeeded by her widowed daughter Matilda.[29]
Notes
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 278 n11.
- ^ a b Berman 2018, p. 74.
- ^ Livingstone 2010, p. 237.
- ^ For Alice, see Berman 2018, pp. 74 and 278 n5. Armstrong-Partida 2005, p. 83, mentions no Alice, only an Adela who died, probably a teenager, shortly after 1200.
- ^ a b c Berman 2018, p. 75.
- ^ Berman 2018, pp. 76–77.
- ^ a b Berman 2018, p. 76.
- ^ Berman 2009, p. 144.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 75. However, Evergates 2007, p. 237, and Armstrong-Partida 2005, p. 90, date their marriage to 1221/1222.
- ^ Evergates 2007, p. 176.
- ^ Armstrong-Partida 2005, p. 89.
- ^ Livingstone 2010, pp. 10–11 n1.
- ^ Thompson 1995, p. 29.
- ^ Thompson 1995, p. 199.
- ^ a b c Berman 2018, p. 77.
- ^ Berman 2018, pp. 81–82.
- ^ See Berman 2018, pp. 78–79, for a description of the founding of Eau.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 78.
- ^ Armstrong-Partida 2005, pp. 91–92.
- ^ Shadis & Berman 2003, pp. 89–90.
- ^ a b Berman 2018, p. 80.
- ^ Thompson 1995, p. 37.
- ^ Thompson 1995, p. 202.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 75, places his death shortly before that of Matilda's husband in 1239. Evergates 2007, p. 237, and Armstrong-Partida 2005, p. 90, however, have him dying in 1240.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 81.
- ^ Evergates 2007, p. 178.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 76; Johnson 1991, pp. 40–41 and n104. For a description of these gifts, see Armstrong-Partida 2005, pp. 92–94.
- ^ Berman 2018, p. 87.
- ^ A document dated January of either 1248 or 1249 refers to Matilda as countess. See Berman 2018, p. 281 n61.
Bibliography
- Armstrong-Partida, Michelle (2005). "Mothers and Daughters as Lords: The Countesses of Blois and Chartres". Medieval Prosopography. 26: 77–107. JSTOR 44946466.
- Berman, Constance Hoffman (2009). "Noble Women's Power as Reflected in the Foundations of Cistercian Houses for Nuns in Thirteenth-Century Northern France: Port-Royal, les Clairets, Moncey, Lieu and Eau-lez-Chartres". In Katherine Smith; Scott Wells (eds.). Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom. Brill. pp. 137–149.
- Berman, Constance Hoffman (2018). The White Nuns: Cistercian Abbeys for Women in Medieval France. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Evergates, Theodore (2007). The Aristocracy in the County of Champagne, 1100–1300. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Johnson, Penelope D. (1991). Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France. University of Chicago Press.
- Livingstone, Amy (2010). Out of Love for My Kin: Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, 1000–1200. Cornell University Press.
- Shadis, Miriam; Berman, Constance Hoffman (2003). "A Taste of the Feast: Reconsidering Eleanor of Aquitaine's Female Descendants". In Bonnie Wheeler; John Carmi Parsons (eds.). Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 177–211.
- Thompson, Kathleen Hapgood (1995). The Counts of the Perche, c. 1066–1217 (PhD diss.). University of Sheffield.
- Williams, Jane Welch (1993). Bread, Wine, and Money: The Windows of the Trades at Chartres Cathedral. University of Chicago Press.
